As much as ESPN insists Inside the NBA will be unchanged next season, Kenny Smith knows it’s going to be different.
The Eastern Conference Finals between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers will be Inside the NBA’s final bow on TNT before moving to ESPN next season. With Warner Bros. Discovery losing NBA game rights for TNT Sports, the network agreed to license its premiere studio show featuring Smith, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson to ESPN.
TNT Sports will retain editorial control and continue to produce Inside the NBA, but Smith recently spoke to The New Yorker about the move to ESPN, admitting there will be differences.
“We have the same crew of people doing the show. But the timing: are we a half hour now? Are we forty-five minutes? Fifteen minutes? Those are the things that you can control when you own your I.P. But we don’t,” Smith told The New Yorker. “That was the only part that made me uncomfortable and disheartened, because I felt that the four of us should have went into ABC to negotiate that deal. I’m not saying that our executives don’t know how to do that, but we are the I.P. now.”
For years, basketball fans knew when and where to find Shaq, Ernie, Kenny and Chuck during the NBA season. Every Thursday night between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. ET, Inside the NBA was on TNT for basketball fans. And some of the show’s best content comes in those early morning hours, when Barkley starts to get a little delirious from sleep deprivation and doesn’t care who’s watching anymore.
If Smith doesn’t even know when and where he’ll be on TV next season, it’s going to take fans time to adjust as well. The heart and soul of the show might be the same next season with the talent remaining, but that consistency will be gone.
Throughout most of the last year, Barkley has repeatedly shared his uneasiness about the move, professing displeasure with WBD executives for essentially trading the show to ESPN without their knowledge. ESPN and TNT Sports can insist the show will remain the same, but if Barkley and Smith are uncomfortable with the move, their concerns should be taken seriously.
